MUSIC FRIDAY

California singer/songwriter Alice Wallace’s new album, Into the Blue, to be released this week on Rebelle Road Records, is pure California country. Her fourth album, it harks back to the 70’s artists like Joni Mitchell and Jackson Brown who did not have all the answers but knew how to sing the questions. Folky, romantic, soulful, and always melodic, Alice is eclectic Americana, organic, probing but understanding and often topical. Winner of an LA MUSIC CRITIC Award, Alice has performed at LA’s legendary country venue the Palomino Club, as well as many others in her average 200-gigs year. The album marks her debut on the brand-new Rebelle Road label, an imprint founded by a trio of women dedicated to strengthening the California Country music community and expanding visibility for female artists in the Americana/roots genre. (photo: Linka Odum)

Screamin’ Rachael – Rachael Cain -- named the “Queen of House Music” by Billboard Magazine, was the first house artist to sign a major label deal. She launched the Hip House sound when she recorded Fun with Bad Boys with Afrika Bambaataa and has collaborated with artists including Bambaataa, Marshall Jefferson, Colonel Abrams, Grandmaster Melle Mel. An early signer to and now President of Trax Records, Rachael returns to her strong Chicago alternative roots with Don’t Make Me Lonely while working on the production with Van Christie of Die Warzau. She released a new single I Am House, and celebrated the release of the soundtrack to new film series, The Vamp Bikers Trilogy, which Cain coordinated and which includes the original “Boom Boom” from TRAX, source of friction with Kayne West for his sampling. The film’s soundtrack features some of the trilogy’s actors themselves, including veteran music journalist Michael Musto, 13lackout, Daniel DiCriscio, Wildstreet, Chris Rivers who is the son of iconic rapper Big Pun, and Screamin’ Rachael herself.